Executive Summary
Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School Duval County School District
Ms. Sara Bravo, Principal 1819 Thacker Avenue Jacksonville, FL 32207-3333
Document Generated On March 27, 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1
Description of the School
2
School's Purpose
3
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement
4
Additional Information
5
Executive Summary Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning.
The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis.
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Executive Summary Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School
Description of the School
Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves?
Our school is steeped in history. Landon High School opened its doors in 1927 and had its last graduating class in 1965. Since that time the school has served as a junior high and middle school. Many of the current students have parents and grandparents who attended Landon and enjoy merging their old memories with the new memories made by their young family members. Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School became a dedicated magnet school in August of 2008. The school has increased the number of students from 550 in 2008 to 750 in 2013 and is currently at capacity for building and class size allowances. Each student enrolled at Julia Landon is accepted through the Duval County Magnet School lottery process and one third of the student population are gifted program students. All core courses offered at Julia Landon are advanced or gifted courses. Students are offered a variety of elective courses such as music, technology, drama, art, debate, physical education and health. Additionally, each student is enrolled in a year long leadership elective course that is vertically designed to engage students in the development of leadership from within (sixth grade), leadership in the community (seventh grade) and leadership on a global scale (eighth grade). All teachers at Julia Landon have earned or are currently earning their gifted endorsement which creates a non-segregated community within the student body at Julia Landon.
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Executive Summary Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School
School's Purpose
Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students.
The vision of Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School is to create college bound learners with a deep commitment to public service and a true understanding of their leadership skills in the global community. This vision has been in place since 2008 when our school became a dedicated magnet program. Students that attend Julia Landon are offered only advanced and gifted core courses. A strong faculty leads students in the study of curriculum that provide the academic rigor necessary to best prepare them for success in any of the strong high school programs they choose to attend within Duval County. By nature of our magnet progression, many students will attend Stanton College Preparatory High School, Paxon School for Advanced Studies or Darnell Cookman School of the Medical Arts. Students who require additional academic support are enrolled in reading and math enrichment courses in addition to a creative writing elective course at the eighth grade level. Teachers at Julia Landon work collaboratively within their professional learning communities to plan engaging lessons, navigate the curriculum guides, analyze formative and summative data and make ongoing instructional decisions to drive instruction. Each PLC is led by an experienced lead teacher and supported by a member of the school leadership team. In addition to peer visitations and instructional debriefing sessions that occur twice a month within each PLC, other professional learning practices include a bi-monthly book study on the practice of gradual release, lesson studies within each PLC and weekly instructional visits by the school leadership team. The vision of our school goes far deeper than the high academic expectations for our students. In addition to elective courses such as technology, music, drama and visual art, students at Julia Landon are enrolled in year-long leadership elective courses specific to their grade level. Students at the sixth grade level engage in a study of "Leadership From Within". A focal text of the course is Sean Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Sixth grade students learn their personal leadership style while developing ongoing organizational habits that will support their work through school and life. Students at the seventh grade level begin to take more of an active role in their journey of leadership development through participation in service learning projects. Some of their focus areas have included literacy, hunger and environmental awareness. The seventh grade work is typically done at a community level with the San Marco area as a target. Students at the eighth grade level are taught to broaden their perspective and understanding of the need for vision and leadership on a global scale. Students work collaboratively to develop mini-documentaries that engage audiences in a topic of concern such as autism, child trafficking, depression, animal rights, world hunger and water shortages. Community service work continues at the eighth grade level to encourage servant leadership and action. Students at Julia Landon are taught that a strong academic middle school environment must be balanced with an emerging awareness of the need for strong leaders within schools, the community and on a global scale. The ultimate goal is for students to leave Julia Landon with a greater awareness and understanding of the importance of their positive and educated impact, currently and in the future, in the world around them.
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Executive Summary Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement
Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years.
Over the last three years, Julia Landon has continued on an upward trajectory on the FCAT in the areas of reading, math and science. The school has maintained an "A" for the past five years with an increase in overall points each year. On the 2012 administration of the FCAT, our school maintained the reading proficiency percentage of 90 and math proficiency of 95, but dropped one percentage point in science from a 90 to an 89. Writing proficiency was challenging to measure in terms of growth since the proficiency target was moved, but with 94 percent of the eighth grade students scoring a 3.5 or higher, Julia Landon's goal for the 2013 school year calls for an increase in 3 percentage points. Substantial gains were noted in the areas of reading gains with a six point increase, from 77% to 83%. Bottom quartile reading gains were also notable with an eight point increase, from 70% to 78%. Math gains, already high, were either maintained or increased slightly. Another notable area of student improvement was with the Algebra and Geometry End of Course Exam scores. All seventh and eighth grade students enrolled in Algebra passed the 2012 Algebra EOC and all eighth grade students enrolled in Geometry passed the 2012 Geometry EOC earning 100 accreditation points for Julia Landon. The focus continues to be on improvement in reading gains and bottom quartile reading gains. With a new district-wide reading curriculum, novel-based instructional support courses for level three readers and new assessments that provide a greater depth of understanding regarding the deficiencies that plague struggling readers, that school-wide focus is supported with district initiatives. Additional goals include an increase in the number of level six FCAT Writes scores, maintenance within the proficiency and percentile gains of mathematics and a return to a percentage of ninety or higher on FCAT science. The achievement gap that currently exists between the white and black student populations in both reading and math, although lessening, is still present and is a large portion of the book study professional learning experienced developed to guide ongoing instructional practices at Julia Landon. The 2012-2013 Julia Landon PTSA was awarded the district PTSA of the year award along with a number of other awards and achievements. An ongoing faith-based partnership with Southside Baptist Church is the basis for a growing mentoring program and another long-standing partnership with the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce provides ongoing support for the leadership program, in particular to the students at the eighth grade level as they work to develop global leadership mini-documentaries. Two films over the past five years have been shown at the Jacksonville Film Festival and this is due in great part to the partnership with the Chamber.
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Executive Summary Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School
Additional Information
Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections.
Julia Landon is a unique school in that it not only guides students through a college preparatory curriculum with all advanced and gifted courses and a requirement of all eighth grade students to complete Algebra I, a high school credit course, but also offers a vertically designed, grade level specific leadership curriculum to all students. Students are given an opportunity to develop a better understanding of their leadership style over the course of three years and are exposed to many areas of need in the community and beyond. Many students move into high school with a clear vision and purpose for their required community service work. Through their work within the academic and leadership curriculum a better understanding of technology use, clear communication skills and the necessity of collaborative learning are built and uncovered. Our school offers a small middle school environment with no more than 750 students, allowing the opportunity for each child and family to be given the attention they deserve. The campus is completely renovated, yet boasts much of the historic architecture that honors the many classes of high school and middle school students who moved through the halls and classrooms since 1927. Three computer labs, twelve mobile laptop carts (PC and Mac) and interactive white boards in each classroom offer students the virtual learning tools that, when used in tandem with strong instruction, are highly beneficial to the modern student's learning needs. A full athletics program, multiple after school clubs and organizations and a highly involved SAC and PTSA create a well-rounded atmosphere that is family-friendly, appropriately competitive and child-centered in the best possible ways. Julia Landon is an academically-focused magnet school that balances a driven college preparatory environment with an emphasis on the development of leadership in each student. A supportive and compassionate faculty and staff recognize the importance of the sometimes difficult, frequently exciting and always changing middle school years.
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